Ring Of Fire
by Dawsey
Summary: This story picks up right after episode 1x10. Shay was injured in the ambulance crash and Dawson is overly concerned, ignoring her own physical pain. Casey shows up just when he's needed most. Casey/Dawson
1. Aftermath

"Dawson? Dawson!"

Finally she jerked out of her haze, meeting the Chief's dark, concerned eyes. His gaze had been on her for the past few minutes, but she hadn't even realized it. Severide was standing a few feet away, leaning against a wall, tears shimmering in his eyes just waiting to be released.

"Yes.", Dawson replied weakly, forcing herself not to avert her eyes as she stood in front of the Chief, tired, worried and with a headache that almost made her want to curl up in a corner and die.

"You need to go get that looked at." The Chief's voice was soft, but firm at the same time. He gestured to her head that was partly covered with dried blood coming from a little cut on top.

"I'm fine, the paramedics already - " She broke off mid-sentence, realizing that he wouldn't believe her in the least if she told him that the paramedics had already thoroughly inspected her head wound. They had been focused on Shay mainly and Dawson had made damn sure that it stayed that way, telling them that she was fine whenever one of them tried to get a closer look at her.

"I need to be here when Shay get's out of surgery.", Dawson pleaded, hoping that he would understand. The ambulance crash had left her partner unconscious and she wasn't able to think about getting some blood cleaned off her forehead before she knew that Shay was alright. It could wait.

Before Chief Boden could respond, however, Casey came running down the hallway, stopping in front of them. "Dawson!" His eyes quickly scanned over her, his expression turning even more concerned at the sight of the blood on her forehead. "The others are on their way.", he said to the Chief while his worried eyes were still resting on Dawson who was averting her gaze.

"Good.", Chief calmly said, briefly turning his head just in time to see Severide punch his fist against the wall. "Take Dawson down to the ER.", he told Casey before walking over to the distraught lieutenant of Squad 3.

"Come on.", Casey softly said, putting an arm on Dawson's back to comfort her and make her go with him.

"I'm fine.", she muttered quietly, but gave up her resistance, knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere with the Chief and Casey. They walked towards the elevators without speaking a word and then stood next to each other, waiting for the doors to open. She noticed the worried side glances he kept giving her right before the elevator opened. Two nurses stepped out, accompanying an older man in a wheelchair, leaving the elevator empty for Casey and Dawson. Once inside, she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes for a second and bringing up a hand to her throbbing head as Casey pushed the button for the first floor.

"You alright?" He hadn't missed the fact that she had closed her eyes and was now holding her head. She looked exhausted and hurt like he had never seen her before and it made him inwardly cringe. He didn't know much about the accident, only that some idiot had hit the open ambulance with his vehicle, but what more was there to know? There was no reason or logic behind this, it should have never happened. How could someone drive their car into an ambulance that was right there, in front of everyone's eyes?

"Ya.", Dawson replied with a light nod, still using the elevator wall for support. His voice sounded as if it was coming from far, far away although he was so close. Almost as if her ears were stuffed with some kind of cotton that only let muffled sounds through. Casey took a step towards her and she slowly lifted her head a bit, her tired eyes meeting his worried ones. A sudden dizziness overwhelmed her from one second to the next and in an attempt not to fall down, she reached her hand out and found Casey's jacket, clinging on to it. She blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the unwanted faint feeling but the world around her slowly started to fade, no matter how hard she was fighting it.

"Dawson?"

Her fingers held on tighter to Casey's jacket before her muscles relaxed and she passed out. Luckily, he saw it coming and was standing close enough to catch her before her body could hit the gray, hard floor of the elevator.


	2. Uncertainty

**Author's note:**

**I completely forgot to put a disclaimer on top of the first chapter, so this is me now sadly announcing that I don't own the show or the characters.**

**I was surprised to see how many of you liked chapter one :) Thank you so much for your reviews, they were a big motivation in writing this chapter.**

**...  
**

"How are they?" Followed by Otis, Mouch and Herrmann, Peter Mills rushed towards Chief Boden and Severide. He frantically looked at the two men, his nervousness and worry obvious for anyone to see. The seconds that went by until the Chief turned towards him to answer felt like endless minutes for the young candidate. Otis, Mouch and Herrmann seemed a bit calmer, but shocked and concerned nevertheless.

"Shay is in surgery, the doctors couldn't tell us much yet." The Chief's voice was calm and firm as always. He was still radiating confidence and strength, so much different than Severide, who looked like he was going to break down any moment. "Casey took Dawson down to the ER to get her head wound taken care of."

"They'll probably be back soon.", Severide added as he kept walking back and forth, finding it hard to sit down and get rest and as soon as he spoke, all eyes were on him. He stopped his frantic pacing for a second to look back at all the concerned expressions in front of him, feeling how his blood began to boil without any reason. Just them looking at him was enough to piss him off right now. "What?", he hissed before continuing to walk up and down the little waiting room. Otis and Mouch exchanged quick looks, but said nothing and walked over to the chairs to sit down. Herrmann directed his eyes towards the doors of the OR down the hallway and let out an audible sigh. "I hope they give us an update soon." Impatience was in his voice, but he said out loud what everyone was thinking. Not knowing what was going on was the worst. There was no telling what was happening behind the closed doors of the OR and that was more than nerve-wracking.

Mills only gave a slight nod at the Chief's explanation of what was going on. At least it sounded like Dawson was out of danger, now they just had to pray that Shay would be as well. He slowly walked over to the chairs as well and settled down in one of them, it was hard and uncomfortable, but he barely took notice of that.

…

Casey lifted Dawson up, she was tiny and barely weighed anything. "Dawson.", he repeated as he worriedly scanned over her body, hoping that she would open her eyes. But she didn't and she certainly wasn't 'alright' like she had claimed. He needed to find a doctor to look at her as soon as possible, that much was clear, so as soon as the elevator doors opened in front of Casey, he stepped outside. Carrying Dawson in his arms, he quickly followed the signs that led him to the ER, his heart now beating heavily against his chest. A flicker of anger went through him, the paramedics should have never let her go without being properly looked at in the first place. He knew exactly how stubborn and adamant Dawson could be, but damn they shouldn't have let her run off without making sure that she was alright.

He stumbled into the ER, hastily looking around for help. The room was filled with patients, nurses and doctors who were in a rush, crying children and worried relatives. A loud gagging sound made him aware of the elderly man next to him, who was just about to empty his stomach on the floor. Casey took a few steps back and one of the nurses who looked like she had a 48 hour shift behind her, rushed over to the elderly man.

Holding Dawson tight, he made his way over to the nurses' station, speaking up loudly which caused the busy nurses there to pause whatever they were doing and look up at the firefighter who was carrying an unconscious woman. "I need a doctor."

"Sir, what happened?"

"Car crash, she lost consciousness.", he said impatiently, not in the mood for any details or longer chats with the nurses. He just wanted them to get a doctor to look at Dawson, as soon as possible, no, right away actually. He had no idea what was wrong, but if he was sure of one thing it was that he didn't want to waste any time.

"Just get someone to look at her.", Casey added with a pleading tone in his voice before the nurses had the chance to ask more questions.

"Matt?"

He turned around at the sound of the familiar voice behind him and looked right into the eyes of Hallie, his ex-fiancee. She was wearing a pair of blue scrubs and her lab coat, a stethoscope hanging around her neck. In an instant, her expression turned serious and although it was slightly uncomfortable running into her the first time after their break up a couple of weeks ago, Casey was also relieved to see her right now. If anything, he knew that he could trust her.

"What happened?" Hallie placed the chart she'd been holding onto the nurses' station and gestured at him to follow her to one of the curtains.

"A truck crashed into the ambulance. She seemed alright until a few minutes ago." He carefully laid Dawson down onto the gurney, almost a little reluctant to let go of her completely, but he knew that he had to step back and let the nurses do their job. It didn't take long and they had put an IV into her arm and hooked her up to some monitors. Casey briefly glanced at them as if they would tell him what was wrong with Dawson, but he gave up pretty fast as the numbers didn't mean much to him. His glance moved over to Hallie who was inspecting Dawson's head, her expression still rather stern. She quietly determined that the wound wasn't deep and had already stopped bleeding, no stitches needed. A wave with her hand told one of the nurses to clean Dawson's head wound while Hallie looked up at the monitors before her gaze finally met Casey's. "How long has she been unconscious?"

"Ten minutes tops. Is she going to be alright?" He tried not to sound too impatient or worried, but failed horribly. Ten minutes of being unconscious after a car crash was certainly not good, you didn't need to be a doctor to know that much.

Hallie took her gloves off and tossed them into the nearest trash bin. "She needs a CT scan, I'll schedule one right now. I'm sure I can get her in before some other patients." She put on a small encouraging smile for Casey as she was starting to walk away, but he reached out and grabbed her arm before she could leave. "Wait, what's going on? You didn't answer my question, will she be alright?" He wasn't going to let her just give him the same vague answers that doctors were so experienced in giving patients and relatives. He wanted, no he needed an idea of what was happening, of how bad it was. Every minute of Dawson not waking up was inwardly driving him crazy. "Matt, I don't know-", Hallie replied hesitantly. He was worried and it was understandable, she knew how close Dawson and he were. Sometimes in the past, when they were still a couple, it had hurt her to know that he often valued Dawson's opinion more than hers.

"You don't need to 'know'. Just tell me what you 'think'." His expression was worried, but also firm. Hallie let out a small sigh and glanced back at the monitors. "Her BP is elevated. She might have some intracranial pressure."

"And what does that mean?"

"That she needs surgery as soon as possible."


	3. Requiem

**Author's note: **

**Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this fanfic, it means a lot to me :)) I didn't have anything to do today, so I worked on this chapter and future plotlines for this story :) **

**The italic parts of this chapter are happening entirely in Dawson's head as she's unconscious. **

**...**

"Alright." Casey's eyes met Hallie's for a moment and he nodded, releasing her arm. Even if they weren't together anymore, he still trusted her as a doctor. She was good at her job and he knew that she would make the right call. If she said that there was a high possibility of Dawson having intracranial pressure then there was no reason not to believe her, even if he was still clinging to the hope that she was wrong and that Dawson wouldn't need surgery. He watched her with a nervous feeling in his stomach as she walked away to schedule a CT. The nurse who was cleaning up Dawson's head wound gave the firefighter a sympathetic look. "Hard day?"

He turned back around to her and slowly nodded, but didn't say anything. Leaning against the wall next to the gurney, Casey put a hand in his pocket and took his cell phone out. He realized that he should probably call Antonio, he knew that Dawson and her brother were close. After the whole incident with Voight, Casey had his number saved in his phone. He put the device up to his ear and waited, but Antonio didn't pick up. He brought a hand up to his forehead and swallowed hard before clearing his throat and leaving a message. "Hey … uhm … this is Casey. Call me back if you can, it's important."

_Her head was throbbing as she opened her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked to her side, slowly remembering what happened. Shards of glass and broken vials were lying all around her, making the ambulance that was usually so tidy quite a mess. Dawson slightly gasped to take another breath, somehow during the crash the gurney had been thrown around and pinned on top of her, pressing down onto her chest. "Shay." Her voice came out weak and hoarse and Dawson cleared her throat before trying it again. "Shay?" She couldn't see or hear her friend and that was enough to inwardly make her panic. Forcing herself to stay calm even though she could barely move, Dawson took another small breath. "Shay!" _

_She brought her hands up and tried to get the gurney off her, but the damn thing didn't move an inch. It was stuck pretty good in its current position. Letting out a frustrated gasp, Dawson used as much force as she could, but she slowly realized that she didn't have a chance. She couldn't get free. And worse, she wasn't even able to reach her phone to call for help. All she heard coming from outside the open ambulance was the usual sound of traffic. She probably hadn't been out for long. Had anyone even called 911 yet? _

The nurses had taken Dawson down to radiology for the much needed CT scan. He wasn't allowed to be there in the room, so Casey found himself standing in the hallway slightly awkwardly, waiting impatiently for news. He leaned against a wall, at some point started walking up and down the hallway, then leaning against the wall again. Not being able to do anything was horrible. He fished his phone out of his pocket and tried to call Antonio again, but still no response. He started to slowly walk up and down the hallway again with nervous glances at the door of the room in which Dawson and the radiologist were. Why did this take so long? Was it supposed to take this long? Casey could feel himself growing more restless by the second. He pulled his phone out of his pocket again to call the Chief and give him an update on Dawson even though he didn't know much yet himself. It seemed better than doing absolutely nothing.

_After what seemed like an eternity, the loud sounds of sirens finally broke through the unnerving silence around her. Exhausted from trying to move the gurney off of her, Dawson finally let her hands sink, closing her eyes for a second as the throbbing in her head was almost too much to bare and slowly making her nauseous. She could hear that someone entered the ambulance, probably a paramedic. Hopefully they went to check on Shay first, because apart from the headache and the gurney that pinned her down, Dawson felt alright. Shay on the other hand was most likely unconscious since she hadn't responded to any of Dawson's calls. At this point, she refused to even consider the possibility of her friend not being alive. _

"_Dawson!"_

_Her eyes widened a bit in surprise at the sound of the familiar voice. She turned her head in pain to see Casey kneeling down beside her, a terrified look on his face as he was quickly scanning over her body. He wasn't wearing his firefighter gear, he was dressed in casual clothes, which further made her wonder how he'd come to be here, but she didn't question it right now. There were more important things at the moment. "Casey?" Her voice was hoarse again and she could see the worried look he shot her when she spoke, "How's Shay?"_

_He turned his head a little to look over at the paramedics that were bent over Shay's body."The medics are with her," he told her before his gaze wandered to the gurney on top of Dawson. He reached out and placed a hand on one side of it, carefully seeing if it would move with little force. It didn't._

"_I'm stuck," Dawson muttered plainly._

"_I'll get you out."_

_For a brief moment their eyes connected, gauging each others' emotions._

When Casey finally got an update on Dawson, it wasn't what he wanted to hear. Hallie had been right, she needed surgery indeed and before he could even so much as take another look at her, she was being wheeled into one of the ORs. "The head trauma from the accident lead to intracranial hemorrhage which caused the brain swelling the CT scan showed." The doctor's words didn't sound good and Casey swallowed hard as he stood in front of the man, nodding. "We have to give her a burrow to release some of the pressure within her skull. It's a relatively common procedure, hopefully she'll recover consciousness once she's out of surgery." His words sounded reassuring and comforting, but that didn't change the fact that the man was talking about drilling a hole into Dawson's head.

"Alright," Casey finally muttered, looking up at the doctor who had been patiently waiting for him to say something. "How long will it take?"

"About thirty to fifty minutes. I'll let you know as soon as she's in recovery." The doctor gave him an encouraging smile and a pat on the shoulder before he hurried away.

Once again, Casey had to wait. It was nerve-wracking and he was quickly growing tired of just sitting around without being able to do anything to help. He made his way back to the big waiting room and it was easy to tell by the look on everyone's face that they weren't happy about waiting either. "Any update on Shay?" he asked as he walked towards Chief Boden who was the only one left standing in the middle of the room. Even Severide had settled down in one of the chairs by now.

"No," The chief looked back at Casey and shook his head. "Dawson?"

"In surgery. She should be out in about half an hour."

The Chief nodded and briefly glanced at his men before looking down the corridor leading to the operating rooms."Every thought and every prayer needs to be directed down that hallway."

_Dawson was lying on the floor of the ambulance, taking slow and calm breaths while Casey was kneeling next to her, contemplating on how to remove the gurney without hurting her. He didn't want to put any more pressure on her chest than was already being put there by the gurney, but he would have to use quite some force to get it to move. Just as he was about to lift it, they heard one of the nearby paramedics say "She's gone." _

_These two words combined with the shocked expression that was quickly spreading on Casey's face were enough for Dawson to panic. "No!" she cried out, desperately trying to remove the gurney herself again although it hadn't worked out for her before. "Shay! No!" Her screams left her almost breathless and she gasped for air, the gurney still pressing down onto her chest, only allowing her to take small breaths. Tears were quickly filling her eyes as she kept fighting to get free, determined to get rid off the gurney and rush over to Shay. _

"_Dawson!" Casey looked down at her, trying to get her attention, which seemed to be almost impossible right now. "Dawson, I'll get you out, but I need you to stay calm!" His eyes tried to catch hers, giving her an almost pleading look. _


	4. Waking

**Author's note: Happy holidays, everyone! :D**

**...**

"Gabriela Dawson is in recovery room 2." As soon as the nurse had finished the sentence, Matthew Casey was on his feet, ready to follow her to Dawson. And so was Peter Mills.

"Only one visitor for now please." The nurse's voice was caring, but also firm. Everyone in the waiting room could see that this wasn't up for discussion, that she wouldn't allow two or more of them to be in the recovery room, no matter how much they all cared about their coworker. Out of the corner of his eye Casey could see that Mills was hesitating. The young candidate didn't seem to be wanting to cave, while at the same time he probably knew that he should back down and let the lieutenant go. Chief Boden looked up at the both of them, sensing the subtle hint of tension that now filled the room. Otis, Herrmann and Mouch glanced between their lieutenant and the candidate as well, wondering if Mills would really dare to press this or not. Severide was sitting slumped back in his chair, not caring much about what was going on around him.

Casey turned his head to look at Mills, letting him know with one look that he wasn't going to back down and finally the candidate averted his eyes and slowly sat back down in his chair. The nurse lead Casey out of the waiting room and towards recovery, pointing him into the right direction of recovery room 2 before leaving him alone.

Contrary to the bright lights in the hallway, the room was dim. There was only one bed in it, a cabinet on one side of the wall and a little visitor's chair that looked even more uncomfortable than the ones in the waiting room. Casey closed the glass door behind him and walked towards the bed. He realized that a part of him had hoped that Dawson would be awake, but she wasn't. She looked fragile and pale in the hospital bed, hooked up to not one, but two different IV lines. Casey quietly moved the chair closer to the bed and sat down, letting out a small sigh. His eyes were still fixated on her. Seeing Dawson hurt was hard and wrong, but he couldn't avert his eyes either because he cared about her, he always had. It wasn't a sudden revelation he had as he looked at her in that hospital bed, it had always been there. In a way Casey had known for quite some time that she was important to him, it had just never hit him as hard as it did right now.

It was already dark outside and the only sound in the room was the calm and steady beeping of the heart monitor. Casey sat there for a few minutes before he leaned forward a little and reached for her hand, lightly squeezing it. The Christmas party she had invited him to came to his mind, it had ended so awkwardly after their almost-kiss. He had thought they had all the time in the world to get closer to each other, but the ambulance crash once again reminded him how fast everything could be over. It wasn't a reason to rush into anything, but it was a scary thing to think of.

The sudden ringing of his phone pulled Casey out of his thoughts and he let go of Dawson's hand before he reached into his pocket, glancing at the phone as he picked up. It was Antonio, who was finally calling him back. Casey cleared his throat and spoke in a quiet voice as he explained to him what had happened. At least he was now able to tell him that his sister was already out of surgery and that, if you could trust the doctors' words, she would be alright. As expected, Antonio was pretty worried and promised to come to the hospital right away. As he hung up, Casey noticed that Dawson's eyes were slowly fluttering open and he quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket and stood up from the chair. "Dawson?" he spoke softly, giving her time to fully open her eyes and take her surroundings in.

"Shay... She's..." Her voice was hoarse and she broke off. Casey took another step towards the bed as he saw tears shimmering in her eyes.

"Shay's still in surgery, we don't know anything yet." He would have eased her worries if he could, but sadly there was no better news to tell her. Shay had been in the OR for a long time and he wasn't exactly sure what that meant.

"But... she's … you heard the paramedics." The confusion in Dawson's eyes and voice was obvious. Casey watched her as she brought a hand up to her head, moving it through her hair and grimacing a little as if she was in pain.

"You were there, you heard them in the ambulance...when you were trying to get the gurney off me." She sounded lost and confused, but more than that she sounded devastated.

"Dawson, I wasn't there when the ambulance crashed." Casey looked right into her eyes with a serious expression on his face. He didn't know why she thought that he had been there after the crash, trying to get some gurney off her, he could only assume that she'd had some kind of nightmare or hallucination from the brain swelling, whatever the doctors might call it.

"I met you in the hospital and we went into an elevator to go down to the ER, remember? You passed out." He paused after that part, letting the words sink in. From the look on her face he could tell that she most likely remembered this too, she didn't act like she heard it for the first time. That was good, right?

"The doctors said you had a brain swelling and brought you into surgery," he continued, still looking into her eyes.

"Shay's … alive?" she asked, sounding hopeful and scared of the answer at the same time. Casey nodded in response to her question. "She's alive and in surgery. We don't know anything yet, but you know how much of a fighter she is."

Dawson relaxed a little at his words and took a deep breath. He was right, Shay was a fighter. She would pull through, she had to. They had been partners for so long, this couldn't be the end of it. Dawson soon found herself clinging to the hope that Shay was going to come out of surgery just fine, that eventually everything would go back to normal. There was a moment of silence in the room and she flinched a little when Casey's phone suddenly rang. He took it out and glanced down at it before looking back at Dawson. "It's the Chief."

All of a sudden they both felt like holding on to something but even though they were close enough, neither of them made a move for the other one's hand. They looked into each others eyes for a second, quietly giving the other some comfort as Casey slowly picked up the phone. Chief Boden finally had an update on Shay for them and Dawson could feel her heart slowly sink when the expression on Casey's face grew grave.


	5. Ambiguity

"I still remember Shay's first day."

Reminiscing. It came naturally when you were about to lose someone close to you, accompanied by the deep wish that somehow everything would turn out alright in the end, even though it didn't look like it at the moment. Being bound to a hospital bed and not being allowed to get up yet didn't help at all, especially not if your name was Gabriela Dawson. Despite the fact that her head still hurt and that she felt slightly dizzy and weak from the surgery, this recovery room was the last place on earth that she wanted to be in right now. Everything that had happened lately, including the reappearance of Shay's ex and her own Christmas party 'date' with Casey seemed a million light years away, almost as if it had never happened. Maybe it was the shock from the car crash, maybe something else, Dawson didn't know.

"I mostly remember how happy you were to get rid of Victoria." The smallest smile played across Casey's lips after he spoke. Sitting next to her bed in the visitor's chair he leaned forward a little, concern-filled eyes looking right at Dawson, almost as if he was scared she would run away if he let her out of his sight.

"Yes." Under less grave circumstances she would have used this opportunity to go on a rant about the woman she worked with years ago, before Shay came. No one at the firehouse had ever really warmed up to Victoria Clarke. Herrmann had stated multiple times that trying to connect with this woman was like 'looking for a giraffe in the arctic'. Victoria rarely ever spoke to anyone, not because she was shy, but because she just didn't care. She preferred being left alone and the only times she spoke up was when something didn't go the way she wanted. Victoria had been, in Dawson's own words, 'the last to laugh but the first to complain'.

"I thought it couldn't get much worse after Victoria." Dawson mirrored Casey's tiny smile. "And Shay turned out to be … great. I remember our first case together. Some injured drunk guy who ended up throwing up on her. The look on her face was priceless." She looked up at him with sadness in her eyes and broke off.

There had been many moments during the past weeks in which Matthew Casey had suddenly felt like pulling Dawson into an embrace or touching her in other innocent ways like a brush on the shoulder or a hand on her cheek and this was definitely one of them. She was hurt and vulnerable and he wanted nothing more than to pull her into a hug and tell her that everything would be okay. There was a longing in him to be physically close to her that had been growing a lot lately and he was finding it harder and harder to resist. There were moments in which he didn't even want to resist, when he just wanted to go for it and see what would happen while at other times he was holding back, because there was just so much going on in his life right now or at least it felt like there was.

"Hey," he said, looking right into Dawson's eyes, "Shay made it through surgery, she will make it out of the coma too. The doctors are optimistic. She could wake up tomorrow." His words were sincere, the expression on his face honest. Dawson studied him for a moment, realizing that he was trying to make her feel better. After a moment of silence she slowly nodded a little, forcing a tiny smile on her face. "Yeah." He was remaining optimistic and she was glad that he did, even though the doctors hadn't been able to say much regarding when or if Shay would ever wake up.

It was when he saw her little attempt at remaining hopeful and positive that Casey couldn't resist any longer. He leaned forward in his chair and reached a hand out to gently put on hers. Before his hand could touch hers though, the door opened and Casey pulled back, watching as a nurse followed by a worried looking Antonio Dawson entered the small room. Dawson's eyes rested on Casey for a few more seconds as she hadn't missed what he had been about to do. "Thank you for the scare, sis," Antonio said jokingly as he walked closer, but the concern was more than evident in his voice. Dawson slowly took her eyes off Casey and turned her head to look at her brother. "I'm fine, Antonio."

"I should go." Casey didn't hesitate long and got up from the visitor's chair, making room for Dawson's brother. The nurse was already looking at him with a strict expression on her face. One visitor only, he remembered her little rule. He shot Dawson another caring look and nodded at Antonio before walking past the nurse and leaving the room.


	6. Pediatrics

**This chapter's the longest so far :D (I usually suck at writing long chapters, haha) Hope you like!**

**...**

The past four days had felt like eternity for Dawson. The morning after her surgery, she'd been moved up to one of the regular patient rooms that were a lot bigger than the small recovery room she'd waken up in. Her roommate, a woman around her own age who had a similar surgery, had been released the day after Dawson had been moved up into the new room and from then on it was only her, a couple of magazines and a TV. She couldn't thank Antonio enough for bringing her clothes and DVDs, but after 3 days of watching various shows and movies, Dawson had grown really tired of being stuck at the hospital. The only remotely good thing about it was that she was close to Shay and could go to see her whenever she wanted, but she still hadn't woken up from her coma yet and even though it hadn't even been a week, Dawson was starting to get more and more nervous that her friend might never wake up. She'd been sitting next to her bed every evening, telling her whatever came to her mind with the hope that Shay would open her eyes. But she never did, not even during the most embarrassing stories Dawson told her about her life.

Severide was visiting Shay a lot too, at least whenever he wasn't on shift and everyone else from firehouse 51 who knew Shay popped in as well, leaving flowers and whatnot.

Waking up in the morning of the fifth day after the ambulance crash, Dawson realized that this was the first time in her life that she would be spending New Year's at a hospital. To her, still being here seemed unnecessary. She was fine, she felt fine. Her headache had gone away and in her opinion, she was ready to go back to working again. Sitting in a hospital room all day doing nothing had been relaxing for just about half a day before it had started to get on her nerves. 'We'll keep you here a few days for observation', those were the doctor's words every time she asked him about the possibility of being discharged. Observation. There was nothing to observe anymore, she was perfectly fine.

Sick of the hospital night gown, she got dressed in her own clothes as soon as possible, waited for one of the nurses to come in with breakfast, put a random season of 'How I Met Your Mother' into the DVD player and ate. Dr. Thompson didn't show up until early afternoon, but when he finally did, Dawson was quick to ask him about being released today. His response was the same as the previous days and consisted of some vague talking about how important observation after a head injury was. She tried to bargain and argument, but he was just about as stubborn as Dawson herself and insisted to have her stay at the hospital until the next morning. She couldn't say she was happy about being in here for another whole day, but at least now she could look forward to being discharged on the next day, January 1st. "So we come to agree that I'll discharge you next year, Miss Dawson," Dr. Thompson said, then proceeded to laughing about his own little joke. "Get some rest. New Year's Eve at the hospital is quite dull." With these words he turned around and left the room while Dawson watched him with a clearly annoyed look on her face.

Instead of 'getting some rest' like the doctor had suggested, Dawson soon got out of bed to walk around outside the hospital for a bit. Laying down for too long would only mess her up more, she needed to keep moving. When she came back inside, she headed up to Intensive Care to visit Shay for a while. "Severide texted me this morning." She spoke softly, her eyes resting on her friend and coworker. "The firehouse is on shift until 10 tonight, but he said he would try to come and visit you before the New Year." Dawson got comfortable in the chair next to Shay's bed. "Peter Mills texted me too, wishing me a Happy New Year and saying he was sorry he couldn't come visit today, but his family is claiming him after shift." Had Shay been awake, she would have probably teased Dawson about Mill's little crush on her. Dawson never quite believed her, in her eyes they were just good friends and that was all there was to it, but Shay was convinced that Peter Mills wanted more than just friendship. It was just one of many things Dawson missed since the ambulance crash, the friendly banters with Shay.

Dawson got back to her own room just in time for dinner. The nurses didn't like when she was missing for too long, but she usually didn't care much. They rarely seemed to like anything. She just tried to always be there when they were coming with the food tray, so she wouldn't piss them off more. Dinner consisted of a piece of meat, mashed potatoes and a fruit salad and turned out to be exceptionally bland, even for hospital food. If she hadn't been so hungry, she probably wouldn't even have bothered eating much of it.

After dinner she laid back down on the bed, still wearing her own clothes. The other bed in the room was still empty, she'd never gotten a new roommate. Maybe with someone else here, New Year's Eve wouldn't be so boring. Dawson sighed a little, looking up at the ceiling, contemplating watching another season of one of the shows Antonio had brought her. What else was there to do?

…

Casey kicked off his shoes, threw his jacket onto a chair and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He hadn't expected to be home alone at New Year's Eve, the past years he'd spent this day with Hallie, but their sudden break-up a month ago had left him without any plans this year. So it would only be him and a beer on the couch watching TV, waiting to see the Big Apple fall at midnight. He leaned back on the couch, put his feet up on the coffee table and took a few sips of his cold beer.

As he picked up the remote to flip through channels, his mind started to wander to Dawson and the fact that she was most likely spending the evening at the hospital if the doctors hadn't discharged her yet and they most likely hadn't or else he would have probably heard about it from the Chief. The minute he had started thinking about her, he couldn't stop anymore. His mind now seemed to be focused on the thought of her being bored in a hospital bed or alone talking to Shay, who wasn't going to respond. He stopped flipping through the channels and sighed a little as he tossed the remote next to him on the couch. The prospect of paying her a visit at the hospital was compelling, but at the same time he was hesitant because he didn't want to complicate things between them. Ever since his break-up with Hallie, things had been a little awkward between him and Dawson, not necessarily in a negative way, but unusual nevertheless. He'd always been loyal to Hallie, but after their break-up he had finally gotten aware of his slowly growing attraction to Dawson and now he simply didn't know if he should act on it or not.

…

A soft knock on the door woke Dawson up from the light sleep she'd fallen into sometime during watching 'Finding Nemo'. She turned her head to the door and sat up straight in bed, pushing the blanket away. It was warm in the room and the fact that she was wearing her own clothes instead of a hospital gown only added to that. She was surprised to see Casey walking in and that surprise was pretty evident in her voice and facial expression as she spoke. "Casey."

"Hey." He flashed her a small smile before looking up at the TV. Seeing the cute animated fishes on the screen only widened his smile. "Finding Nemo, huh?"

The smile on Dawson's face was as big as Casey's as she looked at him. "Yeah, Diego insisted on Antonio bringing it to me along with some other DVDs." She picked up the remote and turned the TV off, then moved to sit on the edge of the bed facing Casey. "What are you doing here?" She smiled up at him, obviously pleased to see him.

"I thought you might enjoy some company." He shrugged a little and took a step towards the bed. Dawson looked back into his eyes, her expression growing more serious for a moment as she was wondering if he had come 'only' as a friend. If anyone was good at sending out mixed signals, it was Matthew Casey. He had called them going to the Christmas party together a 'date' and then told her that it wasn't a good time, which had made her assume that he was still in love with Hallie. A part of Dawson knew that it would probably be best to step back a little and distance herself from him for a while, but the bigger part of her wasn't strong enough to do that. She loved spending time with him, even if they were friends and not lovers.

"You okay?" He noticed that the smile had faded from Dawson's face, but his question pulled her out of her thoughts and brought the smile back on her face. "Yeah. Let's walk, I've been stuck in this room for far too long already."

They walked down the hallways of the Lakeshore hospital without really paying attention to where they were headed. Casey told Dawson about everything that had been going on in the firehouse these past few days while she listened and commented every now and then. Nothing extra-ordinary had happened, but she was still glad that he kept her updated.

"Looks like we ended up in pediatrics." Casey stopped and looked at one of the giant signs that told them what ward they were in. Dawson followed his eyes and saw the sign as well. It was no wonder that the hallways in this part of the hospital were so quiet and empty even though it was New Year's Eve, the sick children had to be asleep no matter what. "We should probably turn around," Casey said and glanced at Dawson who was just about to nod in agreement, when she suddenly saw a child running around the corner. The little boy immediately stopped when he saw them and mutterd something that sounded suspiciously like:'Oh crap'.

"Hey." Dawson put on a soft, friendly smile and so did Casey.

"Hey buddy, how come you're still awake?" he asked curiously, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Please don't tell the nurses." The boy looked around nervously, making it even more obvious that he wasn't allowed to be out of his room alone at this time. Dawson shot Casey a quick look. They couldn't just pretend they hadn't seen him and let him keep wandering the hallways all alone.

"I just wanted to get my teddy bear, I left him in the playroom. That's all." He looked up at Casey and Dawson with a pleading look, his bright blue eyes and sad puppy dog expression on his face making it almost impossible to call the nurses on him. They exchanged another quick look before Casey took a step towards him. "We'll help you find your teddy bear, but then you really need to get back to your room, okay?"

"Okay, sir!" The boy smiled sheepishly and turned to a hallway on the right. "Playroom is this way."

Casey and Dawson followed the dark-haired boy down the hallway and into the playroom that was completely dark. "What's your name?" Casey asked while he was looking for the light switch. He found it and the lights in the room flickered on. "Oliver," the boy replied with a bright smile on his face, "And I'm 6. Just in case you were wondering." He quickly went to close the door behind them, so the nurses wouldn't find them. "Nurse Rita is really strict. I think it's because she's so old," the boy babbled, getting comfortable in one of the little chairs in the playroom. Dawson chuckled at his words as she looked around the room. "Do you see it anywhere?"

"See what?" Oliver asked and gave her a curious glance.

"Your teddy bear." Dawson slightly raised a brow and gave him an amused look. Casey was glancing around the room as well. There were a lot of toys, but he couldn't see a teddy bear anywhere among them.

"Oh right!" Oliver jumped up, now seemingly searching for the teddy as well, but it didn't slip Casey's attention that the boy didn't really seem to care for the stuffed animal anymore. "Did you lie to us about the teddy bear?"

Oliver's face grew serious when he heard Casey's words and he hung his head in shame. "Yes. I'm sorry, sir." The boy paused for a moment and then looked up at Casey and Dawson again. "I just wanted to stay up because it's New Year's Eve..."

Casey exchanged a quick look with Dawson, then sat down on the carpet in the middle of the room, smiling up at Oliver. The boy didn't seem tired at all. "Fifteen minutes. Then we really have to get you back to your room, okay?" Casey waited for Oliver to nod in agreement. It was a deal. The boy sat down opposite of him and smiled brightly. "Okay, sir!"

"This is Gabby," Casey glanced up at Dawson, who was still standing up and watching their exchange with a smile on her lips, "And I'm Matt." He glanced around the room and spotted some paper on one of the shelves. "Dawson, can you get me some of that paper and scissors?"

"Yeah, sure." She walked over to the shelf to collect what he had asked for, curious as to what he was going to do with it. Once she had handed him the things, she slowly sat down next to him on the floor, watching as Casey started to fold a hat. Oliver looked at him in amazement, his mouth half-open. "Is that a firefighter hat?" he asked excitedly with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes, it is." Casey nodded and smiled at Oliver, handing him the finished paper-hat.

"This is awesome!" The boy took the hat, put it on his head and jumped up, almost losing it in the process. "I'm a firefighter!"

Dawson chuckled and slightly turned her head to look at Casey from the side. He was incredibly good with children and it only increased her attraction to him. They would get into a lot of trouble if one of the nurses found them here, but Casey and Dawson silently agreed that it was worth it. There was something absolutely beautiful in spending some time with a little boy who wanted nothing but not to lay alone in his bed on New Year's Eve, even if it was only fifteen minutes.


	7. Vanilla

**Author's note: I meant to finish this chapter in time to be able to post it on New Year's Eve, but I got sick with a fever, so I couldn't :/ Anyway, I wish you all a happy new year! :D **

**...**

Oliver made a long face when it was time to get back to his own room, but he didn't protest. A deal was a deal. Apart from that, he had started to get really tired. Casey noticed it and picked him up. "Time for bed. What room are you in?"

"203," came Oliver's reply followed by a big yawn. He lifted his hands to make sure the firefighter hat Casey had made him wouldn't fall off his head as they walked down the hallway. He swore to himself that he was going to keep it forever, until the day he was going to be a real firefighter and beyond.

"Happy New Year, Oliver." Dawson's voice was soft and quiet as she spoke, leaning against the door frame of his room watching Casey tuck him in.

"Happy New Year," the little boy muttered as his eyes fluttered closed. Casey figured that he would probably be asleep in less than a minute. He smiled a little and took a step back from the bed. "Sleep well." He carefully took the paper-hat that was in danger of being crumpled and set it onto the night stand next to Oliver's bed. Then he turned around and walked back over to Dawson, who gave him a soft smile. "You're really good with kids."

He shrugged a little and smiled back. "I just like them."

They left the room and started walking down the hallway that led them out of pediatrics. A pleasant silence hang over them for a while until Dawson glanced at a clock on the wall. "Half past eleven," she muttered and slightly turned her head to look at Casey, "Should we go see if the cafeteria is still open?"

"Yeah, sure." He nodded and they made their way to the nearest elevator. He pushed the button and glanced over at Dawson while they were waiting, remembering the last time they'd been on a hospital elevator together. A small frown appeared on his face as he thought back of how Dawson had passed out. Seeing her hurt was something he would never be okay with. It affected him more than he would ever admit to himself.

"You okay?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and briefly looked into Dawson's concerned eyes. The frown on his face hadn't gone unnoticed by her. "Yah, fine," he quickly said, putting another smile on his face. The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. "So...when are they going to discharge you?" He didn't say it, but he wanted her out of the hospital and back at work. He wanted to be sure that she was alright, he wanted her to be okay and kicking ass like she usually was. He had missed seeing her around the firehouse the past days. A part of him needed her there, she was the one he would go to if he needed someone's honest opinion and the one who would always be up for drinks after shift.

"Tomorrow." She leaned against the wall of the elevator. She was, for the most part, happy that she'd be able to go back to work soon. The downside was that she wouldn't be working with Shay anymore. It was an unpleasant thought, but the real terrifying thing was the reason behind it, the coma. All she wanted was for Shay to wake up and be alright.

Casey nodded slightly and gave her a warm smile. "Good."

They walked out of the elevator and into the cafeteria. It was still open because it was New Year's Eve and there was a surprisingly large amount of people sitting around, eating cake and whatnot.

"I can recommend the strawberry cake," Dawson said as they got in line.

"Really." Casey lifted an eyebrow in a mocking gesture as he glanced at the various cakes before looking back at Dawson with a big smile. "So that's what you've been doing the past days, eating your way through cakes," he teased.

"Well...there wasn't much else to do," Dawson admitted with a chuckle. Casey gave her another amused look, then grabbed two pieces of strawberry cake and two coffees. After paying, finding a free table was quite the challenge. The cafeteria was filled with patients and relatives who had come just in time to eat some cake, drink some coffee and watch the Fall of the Big Apple on the big TV that was hanging on one of the walls.

"I guess it's forbidden to leave the cafeteria with food plates and eat the cake in your room where it's quiet?" Casey asked, still looking around for a free table although he was pretty sure there was none and there wouldn't be one anytime soon.

"Oh yes," Dawson said, putting on a fake serious expression. "We really shouldn't do that."

They exchanged quick looks, smiled mischievously and then left the cafeteria before anyone could notice.

Dawson closed the door of her room behind them and walked over to the bed, shoving the blanket and pillow to the headboard so they could sit and lean back.

"Ten minutes until New Year," Casey said as he sat on the bed, the plate with the strawberry cake on his lap. Dawson smiled and sat next to him, grabbing the remote to turn on the TV.

"Just in time to watch the Big Apple fall." She snuggled back against pillow and blanket and picked up her fork. Casey had already put a piece of cake in his mouth.

"You were right."  
"Hm?"

"The cake, it's really good."

Dawson chuckled lightly and looked at him. The bed wasn't too big, so their shoulders were almost touching as they were sitting next to each other. Casey turned his head and looked back into Dawson's eyes. For a moment it seemed as he was frozen in time, he actually felt like he was physically frozen and completely unable to move, just staring into her eyes, seeing all of her kindness and passion in them. It was one of the things about her that deeply fascinated him. There was so much life behind her eyes, so much beauty shining from the inside out that sometimes he found it hard to look away. There were moments when he just wanted to give in and keep staring, no matter how creepy it might be, but he never fully gave in. He always pulled himself together, sometimes sooner and sometimes later.

"Told you." Dawson smiled softly and averted her eyes as she took a sip from her coffee. Casey forced himself to avert his gaze as well and direct it on the TV. The countdown had started and while eating cake and drinking coffee, they both watched the Big Apple fall and finally come to a stop, indicating that the New Year had started.

"Happy New Year, Dawson."

"Happy New Year to you too," she replied with a smile and put the plates and empty coffee cups on the nightstand. "Do you want to go up to Intensive Care to visit Shay and Severide?"

"Yeah." Casey nodded without hesitating. He cared about Shay in a different way than he cared about Dawson, but at the end of the day he was still worried about her. Everyone at the firehouse was.

Casey watched as Dawson grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. She had moved towards the nightstand to put the plates away and when she'd come back, she'd sat a bit closer to him than before. She probably hadn't even noticed, but he did. Her perfume was invading his nostrils, it was a soft smell of vanilla and flowers. Before he knew what he was doing, he had gently brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She looked up at him, a mix of confusion and tenderness in her expression, her big brown eyes staring right into his. He slowly pulled his hand back and she didn't say anything, but neither averted their gaze. Their breaths were soft and slow, matching the complete silence of the hospital room. Their gazes moved over each other's face, to the cheeks, the lips and back to the eyes. It was like a silent game, a game without words and they were playing it to the point where neither of them was going to stop or pull back. Their faces were inches from each other and they both knew it was going to happen, they were just fully savoring the moment before it did. And then, as if synchronized, their eyelids slowly lowered and Casey closed the gap between their lips.

He kissed her as if he'd been waiting for that very moment his entire life and she kissed back with no less desire. If she had ever kissed Matthew Casey in her dreams it had been nothing compared to this. For one moment, the world around her faded and she felt absolutely safe.

After what seemed like seconds and hours at the same time, they both slowly broke away, opening their eyes again and looking at each other as they did so. Casey was first to slowly avert his eyes and clear his throat. "Uhm. ..should we go?"

Dawson watched him quietly for a moment, trying to figure out if he regretted what just happened, but it was hard to tell what was going through his head. His expression didn't reveal anything, sometimes he just had too good of a poker face. Dawson moved a hand through her hair while Casey got off the bed. "Yah, sure."


	8. Changes

The day after New Year's, Dr. Thompson had signed Dawson's discharge papers, just as promised. The moment she stepped out of the hospital with her small backpack over her shoulder, she let out a breath of relief. She could finally return to work and she felt like she desperately needed that, to keep herself busy. Being stuck in the hospital with nothing to do had her worrying about Shay more often than was healthy. At this point, there was nothing Dawson or anyone else could do besides wait and hope for the best, but a lot of times she'd managed to scare herself, thinking of the worst case scenarios. She lightly shook her head and banned these negative thoughts from her mind. Shay was going to be fine, people had woken up from longer comas. Everything would eventually go back to normal. In the meantime, she just had to stay strong and not let it drive her crazy.

Dawson went home to her apartment just long enough to take a hot shower in her own bathroom and get changed afterward. Before long, she was on her way to the firehouse. As she stepped into the big room, everyone's face lightened up. "Dawson." Mouch was the first one to address her. He was, as usually, relaxing on the couch in front of the TV, a piece of some slightly strange looking cake in front of him. Otis was sitting next to him, giving Dawson a welcoming nod as well.

"Hey, back to duty already?" Herrmann asked, his lips curling into a small smile. Dawson turned her head to look at him, a smile appearing on her face as well when she realized that he was putting away the dishes from lunch, a rather rare sight. "Don't hurt yourself there, "she said, giving him a mischievous grin. Casey, who was leaning against the kitchen counter, playing with a toothpick in his mouth, smiled widely at Dawson's words. His eyes rested on her and when her gaze met his, he ever so slightly nodded as if to quietly say that it was good to have her back. She returned the little nod, thinking back of their kiss the night before. Neither of them had mentioned it afterward, it was like it never even happened.

"Dawson, I need to talk to you in my office for a moment." The Chief's voice had Dawson turn around. He was standing in the door frame, his eyes on her. "Yes." She nodded and followed him down the hallway, closing the door behind her as she entered his office and waited for him to sit down.

"You feeling alright? You could have taken some days off."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, nodding as if to underline her words and it wasn't a lie. She was feeling like always, no more headaches or dizzy spells. The Chief gave her an almost examining look before speaking again.

"Peter Mills has been filling your shifts during your stay at the hospital," he informed her, "Along with Shay's replacement."

The words made her furrow her brows. 'Shay's replacement'. Of course the Chief had to have hired someone in both her and Shay's absence, Peter Mills wasn't qualified enough to work alone and apart from that, it was a two-person job. Still, it didn't feel right to hear about Shay's replacement.

"_Temporary_ replacement?" Dawson couldn't help but ask.

"Aspen Clarke is going to work shifts with you until Shay is able to return."

She gave a tiny nod in response to the Chief's words, somewhat relieved to hear that Shay would be able to come back anytime. Dawson gave the Chief another slow nod, before turning around and leaving his office.

Walking back into the big room, she saw Peter Mills coming in, obviously just back from an emergency call, followed by a pretty redhead. His eyes widened a bit in surprise when he noticed Dawson and he walked right over to her, pulling her into a hug. "I'm glad you're back." The relief was obvious in his voice.

Dawson smiled softly and returned the friendly hug. "Me too, Peter Mills." He let go of her again and they smiled at each other, both unaware of Casey's observing eyes on them. "I hope the ambulance is still in one piece." Dawson chuckled and Mills' grin widened at her teasing words.

"I did my best to cover for you." Mills took a step back and Dawson's attention fell on the redhead behind him who was wearing a paramedic uniform as well.

"I'm Aspen Clarke. Filling in for Leslie Shay," she said, reaching a hand out to Dawson. She didn't seem to be much older than Dawson herself, maybe a few years.

"Gabriela Dawson." She gave the other woman a warm, but scrutinizing look while shaking her hand. Mills had turned around, taking his EMT jacket off as he was walking towards the hallway that led to the locker rooms.

"Well, I'm starving. Did my favorite Otis save me something from lunch?" Aspen tossed her jacket on an empty chair and walked right past Dawson over to the kitchen counter, opening her messy bun as she did so. Dawson turned a bit to watch how Otis immediately jumped up like a puppy.

"Of course I did." He smiled widely and joined Aspen in the kitchen, not without throwing a glance at her behind first. Dawson inwardly rolled her eyes at the whole scene. Apparently the new paramedic had already made herself feel like at home in Firehouse 51 and for some reason it rubbed Dawson the wrong way. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and let out a tiny sigh.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?," Casey asked as he approached her, his hand gesturing towards the door.

"Yeah, sure." She turned around and followed him outside the station, where no one could hear them. The wind blew through her hair as she looked up at him quietly. There was no point in asking what this was about, she knew that he was going to talk to her about what had happened between them. She just didn't know what he was going to say and each second that went by in silence made her slightly more nervous. She stepped from one foot to another, still facing him. Casey seemed hesitant, he slowly cleared his throat, not taking his eyes off her. "About last night … uhm ..." He looked up for a brief moment, obviously looking for the right words.

Dawson inwardly sighed, this definitely seemed like he was going to blow her off. "Look … I can just forget about it if that's what you want, " she quickly said, suppressing a hint of frustration in her voice.

"No. It's just … I have a lot going on right now." He looked down at her, searching her eyes, but she quickly averted her gaze. "Yeah, no, I understand." She'd never been too good at hiding her emotions, she sounded hurt even though she tried not to.

"But I want us to -" Casey's words were cut off by the sound of the alarm, calling Truck81, Squad 3 and Ambulance 61 to an accident involving two cars. Dawson turned around and hurried to the ambulance, Aspen who had just come out of the building following closely behind. Casey inwardly cursed as he rushed off to his own truck where his men were already waiting.

Once the ambulance arrived at the scene, Dawson jumped out to get an idea of the damage and of who needed help first. One of the cars was pretty damaged, while the other didn't look as bad, but had hit an electric pole and caused one of the power lines to come down. Casey and his men were already rushing towards the more demolished car, while Severide and his guys were slowly nearing the dangerously sizzling power line next to the other car.

"Aspen, follow Casey and see how many are injured in that car!" Dawson quickly made her way over to the car that had hit the electric pole while Aspen nodded and rushed over to Casey and his men.

"Stay back, Dawson! It's not safe." Severide was kneeling down, checking if there were any leaks under the car. To his dismay he spotted a pretty big one. "Damn. Can't wait for the power company."

Dawson quickly tied her hair together and tried to see how many people were inside the car. She only saw one, the driver, a girl who looked like she was about 16 or 17. "Miss?" She came as close to the car as she could without risking getting too close to the sizzling power line. No reply. The girl didn't even look at her, she seemed to be heavily breathing, but all of a sudden, she turned to the side, twitching as she did so. Dawson realized that her face was red and swollen, her chest heavily moving.

"She's in anaphylactic shock! I need to get in there!" Dawson yelled and turned around, opening the back of the ambulance and grabbing an epinephrin pen before rushing back.

"We need more time to clear the car!" Severide replied, his eyes glancing a the leak again while his men were coming back with the tools they needed to get the broken power line out of the way.

"She doesn't have time! She'll be dead in a minute!" Dawson could tell by one look at the girl that the shock hadn't just started. No, the allergic reaction had probably caused the accident to begin with. That girl needed epinephrin in the next few seconds or else she was dead.

Without further hesitation, Dawson ran past Severide and opened the car door that was farthest away from the broken power line.

"DAWSON!"

In the meanwhile, Casey and his men had pried open two of the doors of the other car. As soon as the back door was open, Aspen climbed halfway inside, making sure the little girl on the backseat was alright. "How is she? How is she?" came the panicking voice from the mother in the front seat. "She's okay." Aspen made sure the girl wasn't hurt before helping her out of the car. "Mommy, Mommy!"

"Just a second, sweetie." Aspen flashed the girl a soft smile before tending to the mother, who was bleeding from a head wound and trying to get out of the car. "Take it slow." Aspen stopped her to take a closer look at the wound. "This is going to need stitches." She helped her out of the car and led her and her daughter over to the ambulance to further take care of them. Casey and his men walked towards the Chief and the other car, seeing if they could help out.

The look on the Chief's face was stern, his eyes eyes were fixated on the car that had hit the electric pole. "Chief?" He didn't say anything when Casey took his hat off and addressed him and Casey soon found out why he was staring at the car in obvious dismay. Although the power line was still dancing around dangerously, sizzling, Dawson had climbed into the car to help the girl inside. His heart just about skipped a beat when he noticed the leak that was coming from the car. This wasn't good. Dawson had recklessly gotten herself into a dangerous situation to save the girl's life. Casey was tense as he watched Severide and his men fighting to get the power line away without it touching the leaking gasoline. It was precarious to say the least.

"You're going to be okay. What's your name?" Dawson was next to the girl in the front of the car, the epinephrin injection she'd given her hadn't come a second too early. Now her breathing was slowly going back to normal and she seemed to finally take notice of her surroundings.

"Dana," she gasped, widening her eyes in fear as she saw the sizzling power line. "Oh god."

"It's okay. They're taking care of it. Keep taking slow breaths."

The girl nodded and seconds later they heard Severide shouting, "You're clear!" They'd gotten the power line far enough away from the car and it was safe to get out. Casey and Otis were the first to rush over to help the girl get out of the car and support her on her way over to the ambulance. Dawson jumped out behind her, following. "Lakeshore. I'll drive," she said to Aspen who was just done examining the other woman. The redhead nodded and helped the patient into the back of the ambulance.

Dawson opened the door to climb into the ambulance when the Chief's voice stopped her for a moment. "In my office as soon as you're back." She swallowed hard and glanced at him, not surprised that he was anything but pleased with what she'd done. He gave her another strict, piercing look before letting her drive to the hospital.

…

When Casey entered the locker room at the end of their shift, he found Dawson sitting on one of the benches, looking at the wall opposite her. He gave her a look, but she didn't even bother to turn her head and acknowledge his presence, so he quietly stuffed a few things into his locker before hesitantly closing it and walking over to her. "Chief was pretty angry, hm?"

"Yeah." She slightly nodded, but still didn't take her eyes off the wall.

"Understandably." As if their job wasn't dangerous enough, Dawson had done something even more reckless and put her life on the line just like that. She was lucky that the Chief hadn't suspended or at least sent her home for the rest of the shift.

"There was no time. What would you have done?"

Casey looked at her as she asked him for his opinion, then averted his gaze a little.

"I don't know." He honestly couldn't give her a better answer since he hadn't been in the situation. Clearing his throat, he looked back down at her.

"What I meant to say earlier is that … I want to do things the right way. I like you and I don't want to screw this up by bringing my past into it, but … currently it's just a big part of my life." His voice was calm and honest. Here he was, merely a boy standing in front of the girl he liked, trying to explain himself. Casey had never been good at getting his emotions across and even now he had the feeling he completely failed. Dawson was finally looking at him, but the expression on her face showed confusion more than understanding.

"You know you can always talk to me, about anything."

There was a moment of silence between them in which they simply looked at each other. Casey was fighting his own demons, his family was something he never talked about. There were few people who knew what his mother had done a long time ago. It wasn't something he was proud of or something he could easily share. It was a pretty big thing and it was messed up to say the least.

"My mother is in prison," he stated after a while, looking off to the side as he spoke, "And she's been for the past fifteen years." He wasn't surprised about Dawson's expression turning from confused to shocked. What he hadn't counted on was that she got up and wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, letting him know without using any words that she was here for him.

"I'm sorry." Her voice wasn't more than a soft whisper, but he heard her. The whole story was yet to be told, but it was a beginning. No one else at the station knew that his mother was in prison and if he hadn't been willing to tell Dawson the whole story, he wouldn't have given her that tiny bit to begin with. But he was and as soon as she'd hugged him, he knew that it had been the right decision. He lifted his own arms and put them around her back, holding her close. There was an unspoken comfort in the way she hugged him that made him feel better, stronger and he realized at that very moment that she'd always been there, right in front of his eyes, ready to catch him whenever he needed it. He buried his head in her shoulder as his hands slowly started to move over her back, pulling her slightly closer, savoring each second of the embrace.

"Casey...what is this...?" she asked softly after what felt like an eternity, but she didn't move away from him. He slightly loosened the tight hug and pulled away from her just enough to be able to look at her. She was gorgeous, beaming from the inside out just as always, a cute, tiny, insecure smile playing around her lips while her eyes were looking into his.

Casey looked down at her, brushing a strand of hair out of her face before answering her question, "I want us to be more than friends."


	9. Forgiveness

_**Author's note:** I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I hit some kind of writer's block :3 But I hope I'm over it now ... xD Enjoy 3_

_"I want us to be more than friends."_

It was almost surprising how such a simple sentence could evoke so many emotions in Dawson. Her eyes were fixated on Casey's, because there was once again this incredible tension between them that made it impossible to look away. She didn't know where it came from, it hadn't always been like this. Years ago, their friendship had been innocent, but that innocence had faded away at some point. Feelings had changed and while they had both wittingly or unwittingly fought it at first, it had always been clear that eventually, there would be a turning point. They had reached that point the second their lips interlocked at New Year's Eve and they'd both known that whether or not they wanted to accept it, the year wasn't the only thing that was new. In fact, the year had only changed its last number, 2012 had turned into 2013, while their relationship had changed so much more.

There was no going back to the exact friendship they'd had before. Sure, they could pretend that nothing ever happened between them, they could silently die down any chemistry that dared to show up, act as if there was no attraction between them whatsoever, but in the end it wasn't that simple. Even if they went back to being just friends, that kind of friendship would never be the same. It didn't necessarily have to be worse, but it would be different.

"Dawson?" He looked at her, a hint of nervousness and insecurity in his eyes. She hadn't said anything in response to his words and he was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. Maybe she didn't want this. Maybe he had interpreted it all wrong, maybe she didn't want to risk taking the next step in their relationship. If you thought about it, there was a lot to lose. On the other hand, there was also so much to gain.

They weren't aware of how similar their thoughts and fears were at that very moment, but they both knew that these doubts and worries were very real. A lot could go wrong and if it did, it would be even harder to go back to what they had been before. But Dawson also knew that she couldn't 'play safe' here. She was attracted to Matthew Casey and she'd waited long enough to know that it wasn't going away. It just seemed to keep growing stronger. She wasn't the kind of person that was good at trying to smother her own feelings. It didn't work like that. She was impulsive and she always took risks. Sometimes, it got her in the worst situations, but she couldn't help it. And while the rational part of her brain was afraid that their relationship would result in a complete, mind-blowing chaos, the emotional part believed that it could be the best thing in her life.

"I want the same," she quietly said, searching his eyes. Her lips curved into a smile when his did and she closed the small distance between them again, wrapping her arms tighter around him. Casey held her close and buried his neck in her shoulder as everything began to settle in. The step they had taken was a huge one and while both of them had silent doubts about whether this was the right thing and the right time, they were also looking forward to what it meant. And that outweighed any doubts by far.

"Do you want to come over to my place for a cup of coffee?" Dawson asked with a small smile on her face, finally ending the tight embrace. She wanted to be with him a little longer, maybe talk with him about his mother and what had happened. He'd just told her that she'd been in prison for 15 years and there was no doubt that it was something huge. Dawson could sense that whatever she'd done put a strain on Casey and even if she knew she couldn't make the past undone, she still wanted to help him get through it. Listening to him if he decided to open up to her was the first step. Whatever there was in his past, she'd be right by his side whenever he needed her.

"Yeah." He smiled back at her, glad that she'd asked. Just like her, he felt the same need to be with her after shift. It was hard to stay away from a woman who radiated so much positive energy and strength.

Casey waited until she stuffed her things into her locker, then they headed outside into the cool evening air. "I'll see you in ten minutes."

He nodded at her words and watched her as she turned her back on him and walked away to her car. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and for a brief moment remained right where he was, the small smile from before never fading from his face. Then, he turned around, heading to his own car.

…

She felt his breath behind her as she poured the coffee into two cups. A second later, he gently put his head on her shoulder from behind, watching the dark, hot beverage filling up the cups. A smile appeared on her face and as soon as she was done, she tilted her head against his, taking in the scent of his perfume that she loved so much. "You almost made me spill," she said, her voice brimming with fake reproach. Instead of pulling back, he buried his chin deeper in her shoulder and smiled. "I'm sorry." There was clearly not a single hint of regret in his voice. Dawson turned around and faced him. "Do you want to sit at the table or couch?"

"Uh, table is fine."

It didn't matter to him where they sat and neither did it to Dawson. She carried the coffee cups over to the wooden table and sat down while Casey took place opposite her. As he took a sip of the hot beverage, her gaze shifted through the room and over to the window he'd put in for her. It had been only about three weeks ago, but it felt like so much more time had passed since then. It was funny how time often managed to play tricks on you, sometimes she felt as if she'd been friends with Casey her whole life.

He noticed where her eyes went and followed them. Seeing the window immediately reminded him about their almost – kiss back then. It was one of the first times he'd seen Dawson in a completely different light than before. If it wasn't for that phone call from Severide, he would have kissed her right then. Maybe things between them would have changed sooner or maybe they wouldn't have. In the end, it was probably good that nothing happened yet. He needed to get time between this and his break-up with Hallie. Eight years of history didn't just vanish in the matter of days and it wouldn't have been fair to Dawson to make her feel like the rebound. She deserved so much more.

There was a small, awkward silence between the two of them and the longer it lasted, the harder it seemed to be to break. Dawson took a few sips of her coffee, then her eyes came to rest on Casey again. He seemed to be lost in thought and she was unsure if she should say something and pull him out of it or remain quiet. She studied his face for a while and suddenly he seemed to snap out of wherever his mind had taken him and focused on her again.

"So, uhm," she quickly said, eager to break the silence, "About your mother … are you okay?" Her fingers wrapped around her cup as she looked up at him, knowing that he would let her know if he didn't want to talk about it. She wasn't going to urge him if he wasn't ready to share his story with her.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." The smile slowly faded from his face and he fell silent again. Dawson took it as a hint not to keep poking around in his past, but just as she was thinking about another topic to talk about, he sighed and spoke up. "She shot my father when I was in high school." There was a pause in which Casey searched Dawson's eyes, noticing the tiny hints of shock in them. She was good at hiding her surprise though. "They weren't living together anymore, but … he still came by a lot to pester her." He paused, looking to the side. "I think … I'm finally ready to forgive her." It was as much a statement as it was a question. His sister didn't agree with him on that. Sometimes he found himself wondering if it was fair to his father to forgive her. On the other hand, his mother had been a very forgiving woman. She'd made one big mistake. Wasn't it his turn to be forgiving now, after all this time? Or was murder too severe of a crime to ever forgive?

He looked at Dawson and she knew without having to ask, that he needed to know her opinion on it. He'd desperately sought her opinion on the Voight case and right now, he needed her to tell him what she thought was right.

Dawson put her cup down and averted her eyes for a moment, thinking about it. His gaze remained on her, studying her closely as he waited almost desperately to hear what she had to say on this matter. "I don't know your mother, " her eyes met his as she began to speak calmly, " but I think that everyone deserves a second chance."

Casey quietly looked into her eyes, saying nothing. Then, he leaned back in his chair, nodding slowly. There had been no one to talk to about this. His sister shut him out of her life a long time ago and he didn't let any of his coworkers in on his past. Sharing this bit of his family story that he wasn't proud of with Dawson was more of a relief than he could have imagined. It felt like the weight on his shoulders was being reduced to a much more bearable amount.

"The reason this has been on my mind lately is because her parole hearing is in a week," he said, "And my sister will probably speak against her, like she has in the past years." A small sigh escaped his lips. His older sister shared a different opinion, she wasn't ready to forgive their mother for what she'd done and it had slowly destroyed their relationship. He barely saw his niece anymore. Their past stood between them like an iron wall, the sister he'd once been so close to, one of the few people he had always been able to count on was out of his reach.

Dawson leaned forward, the expression on her face was filled with sympathy and understanding. She understood how hard the situation must be for him. He looked almost lost now, the shadow of his past hovering above him. It wasn't like he usually was, at the firehouse. When on shift, nothing of this had showed. No one would have expected that he was dealing with stuff like this. A broken family.

She reached out and put her hand on his, tracing her fingers over the back of it and squeezing it gently. "I'm here for you, " she said quietly and he knew that she meant it. He knew the kind of person she was, always fighting for everyone's happiness, always striving to do the right thing. In all the time they had been friends she'd never let him down, not once. He knew how lucky he was to have her by his side.


End file.
